Activist Urges Riordan Conflict-of-Interest Probe

A local transit activist on Wednesday urged California’s political ethics agency to investigate Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan for championing a rail project that has benefited a company in which the mayor holds a $9.75-million stake.

The request for investigation was made by John Walsh, a Los Angeles schoolteacher who has frequently criticized rail construction spending by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Citing a Times article last Sunday that reported Riordan’s actions, Walsh sought the investigation in a letter to the chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Riordan has said he had no idea his actions, taken in August, would affect the company, Pasadena-based Tetra Tech Inc. He had no knowledge that Tetra Tech did any business with the MTA, Riordan said, until The Times asked him about it last week.

The mayor, who is the No. 2 shareholder in Tetra Tech, declined Wednesday to comment regarding the request for an investigation as he left a meeting of the transit authority board.

Citing policy, representatives of the Fair Political Practices Commission said they were not at liberty to discuss Walsh’s letter. The commission enforces and interprets California’s conflict-of-interest law.

The Times article reported that Riordan won approval in August for an amendment to the MTA budget that provided $97 million for the rail project connecting Downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. At the time, funding of the proposed Pasadena line was a matter of intense controversy because of the MTA’s financial crisis.

Pointing to a $170-million capital budget deficit and a $126-million operating shortfall, MTA officials had recommended postponing or killing the 13.6-mile project. In August, with the viability of the Pasadena line in question, Riordan introduced and won passage for his amendment, which provided funding for engineering services, real estate acquisitions and preliminary construction.

Within seven weeks of that vote, Tetra Tech got the first $267,000 of its payments under an engineering contract it had received in June, 1993, one month before Riordan took office.

Riordan and an aide, lawyer David Michaelson, said last week that although the amendment provided funding for the work, there was no violation of law because the amendment did not award a contract to Tetra Tech.

Representatives of the Fair Political Practices Commission have said that state law prohibits officials from participating in any decision that can financially affect their personal investments. For Riordan, the test would be whether he reasonably should have known that his actions in August would affect Tetra Tech, according to legal experts.

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Riordan placed his investments in a blind trust upon entering office last July. Because of the trust, Riordan has said, he had no way of knowing whether he still owned Tetra Tech stock.

An attorney for the mayor has explained that Riordan would be informed of the sale of any securities he held before the formation of the blind trust. Riordan also has signed financial disclosure forms, in April and last July, acknowledging ownership of the Tetra Tech stock.

Riordan has said he introduced the amendment to resolve a dispute on the MTA board.